הטקסט המלא של מדריך זה באנגלית; התקציר שלמעלה בשפתכם. תקצירי החוקים והנוסח האנגלי נשארים המקור המחייב.
נבדק מול חוקי פנסילבניה בתאריך 2026-10-09. מידע כללי, לא ייעוץ משפטי; הנוסח הרשמי קובע.
- Pennsylvania Uniform Trust Act
- Chapter 77 of Title 20 of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes, Pennsylvania's enactment of the Uniform Trust Code, added in 2006. It governs a trust's creation, administration and the trustee's duties; the trust's own terms prevail except for the mandatory rules the act lists, among them the whole duty to inform and report (20 Pa.C.S. §7705).
- Orphans' court division
- The division of each county's court of common pleas that hears decedents' estates and trusts. A trustee files an account there whenever the court directs and may file one at any other time (20 Pa.C.S. §7797); a surviving spouse's election is filed with its clerk (20 Pa.C.S. §2210).
- Settlor
- A person, including a testator, who creates or contributes property to a trust (20 Pa.C.S. §7703). While a trust is revocable, the beneficiaries' rights are subject to the settlor's control and the trustee's duties are owed exclusively to the settlor (20 Pa.C.S. §7753).
- Trustee
- The person who holds and administers the trust property. On accepting, a trustee administers the trust in good faith, in accordance with its terms and purposes and the interests of the beneficiaries, and in accordance with applicable law (20 Pa.C.S. §7771). מדריך: חובות הנאמן בפנסילבניה לאחר פטירה
- Successor trustee
- The trustee who takes over when a trustee dies, resigns, is removed or can no longer serve. A vacancy is filled by the person the terms designate, then by the qualified beneficiaries' unanimous written agreement, then by the court (20 Pa.C.S. §7764); a successor is not personally liable for a predecessor's acts and has no duty to investigate them (20 Pa.C.S. §7770). מדריך: נאמן מחליף בפנסילבניה: קבלת התפקיד
- Acceptance of the trusteeship
- How a designated trustee becomes trustee: by substantially complying with the trust's method of acceptance or, where that method is not exclusive, by accepting delivery of the trust property, exercising powers, performing duties or otherwise indicating acceptance; one who does not accept within a reasonable time after knowing of the designation is deemed to have rejected it (20 Pa.C.S. §7761). Pennsylvania has no notice of acceptance with a deadline.
- Beneficiary
- A person who has a present or future beneficial interest in a trust, vested or contingent, or who, in a capacity other than trustee or protector, holds a power of appointment over trust property (20 Pa.C.S. §7703).
- Current beneficiary
- A person 18 or older to or for whom income or principal of a trust must currently be distributed, or a person 25 or older to or for whom it may currently be distributed in the trustee's discretion (20 Pa.C.S. §7703). Pennsylvania's notices after a settlor's death or adjudicated incapacity and at a change of trustee go to the current beneficiaries (20 Pa.C.S. §7780.3).
- Qualified beneficiary
- Assuming no testamentary power of appointment is exercised, a beneficiary who on the date the beneficiary's qualification is determined is a distributee or permissible distributee of income or principal, would be one if those interests ended that day, or would be one if the trust ended that day (20 Pa.C.S. §7703). The qualified beneficiaries fill a vacancy by unanimous agreement where the terms name no one (20 Pa.C.S. §7764).
- Revocable trust
- A trust the settlor can revoke or amend; in Pennsylvania a settlor may revoke or amend a trust unless its terms expressly make it irrevocable (20 Pa.C.S. §7752). While it is revocable, the trustee's duties are owed exclusively to the settlor (20 Pa.C.S. §7753). מדריך: נאמנות הדירה בחיים בפנסילבניה, בהסבר
- Irrevocable trust
- A trust that can no longer be revoked — by its terms or because the settlor has died. Within 30 days after the trustee of an irrevocable trust learns that its settlor has died or has been adjudicated incapacitated, the trustee sends the current beneficiaries the statute's written notice (20 Pa.C.S. §7780.3). מדריך: הנאמנות הבלתי הדירה בפנסילבניה, בהסבר
- Notice after the settlor's death
- The written notice the trustee of a revocable trust sends no later than 30 days after learning that the settlor has died — to the settlor's personal representative, the spouse, each child who is sui juris and the current beneficiaries — stating the trust's existence, the settlor's identity, the trustee's name, address and telephone number, the right to a copy of the trust instrument on request, each current beneficiary's right to annual financial reports on request, and each trust director's contact details (20 Pa.C.S. §7780.3). A contest of the trust must be filed within one year after it (20 Pa.C.S. §7754).
- Notice of a change of trustee
- Each time the trusteeship changes, the trustee notifies the settlor in writing — and, where the settlor has died, or the trust is irrevocable and its settlor has been adjudicated incapacitated, the current beneficiaries — with the trustee's name, address and telephone number. The statute states no number of days (20 Pa.C.S. §7780.3).
- Financial reports
- The periodic written financial reports concerning the trust that each current beneficiary may receive, at least annually, on request (20 Pa.C.S. §7780.3). Reports sent at least annually, each with a conspicuous written statement of the rule, start a 30-month period for objecting to a transaction they disclose (20 Pa.C.S. §7785). מדריך: דרישות הדיווח הכספי של נאמנות בפנסילבניה
- Account
- A trustee's formal account of the administration, filed with the orphans' court division whenever the court directs and at any other time the trustee chooses (20 Pa.C.S. §7797), or settled without the court by the notice and statements the statute describes (20 Pa.C.S. §7785.1). מדריך: דרישות הדיווח הכספי של נאמנות בפנסילבניה
- Certification of trust
- A statement a trustee may give a person other than a beneficiary instead of the trust instrument: the trust's existence and the instrument's date, the settlor, the acting trustee's identity and address, the trustee's powers, revocability and who may revoke, how cotrustees sign, the trust's taxpayer identification number and the manner of taking title; it states that the trust has not been revoked, modified or amended so as to make it incorrect (20 Pa.C.S. §7790.3).
- Duty of loyalty
- A trustee administers the trust solely in the beneficiaries' interests; a transaction affected by a conflict between the trustee's fiduciary and personal interests is voidable by an affected beneficiary unless an exception the statute states applies (20 Pa.C.S. §7772). מדריך: חובות הנאמן בפנסילבניה לאחר פטירה
- Prudent administration
- A trustee administers the trust as a prudent person would, considering its purposes, provisions, distribution requirements and other circumstances and exercising reasonable care, skill and caution (20 Pa.C.S. §7774).
- Prudent investor rule
- The standard under which a Pennsylvania trustee accepts, holds, invests in and retains investments, the first of the powers the act illustrates (20 Pa.C.S. §7780.6).
- Impartiality
- Where a trust has two or more beneficiaries, the trustee acts impartially in investing, managing and distributing the property, giving due regard to their respective interests in light of the trust's purposes (20 Pa.C.S. §7773).
- Delegation
- A trustee may delegate duties and powers a prudent trustee of comparable skills might delegate, using reasonable care, skill and caution in selecting the agent, setting the scope and terms of the delegation and reviewing the agent's actions (20 Pa.C.S. §7777).
- Cotrustees
- Two or more trustees serving together. Cotrustees who do not reach a unanimous decision may act by majority; where no majority agrees, the court may direct the exercise of the power; each cotrustee participates unless unavailable or properly delegated (20 Pa.C.S. §7763).
- Trustee compensation
- Where neither the trust's terms nor a written agreement sets it, a trustee is entitled to compensation reasonable under the circumstances; neither governs payment from principal unless it explicitly says so (20 Pa.C.S. §7768). Pennsylvania has no fee schedule. מדריך: שכר הנאמן בפנסילבניה (20 Pa.C.S. §7768)
- Spendthrift provision
- A term restraining both voluntary and involuntary transfer of a beneficiary's interest (20 Pa.C.S. §7742). It does not hold against a beneficiary's child with a support order and the other claimants the statute lists (20 Pa.C.S. §7743).
- Discretionary trust
- A trust whose distributions are in the trustee's discretion. A beneficiary's creditor may not compel a discretionary distribution, even where the discretion is expressed as a standard or the trustee has abused it, subject to the exceptions the statute states (20 Pa.C.S. §7744).
- Trust director
- A person other than the trustee to whom a trust's terms grant a power of direction, under Pennsylvania's Directed Trust Act (20 Pa.C.S. §7780.11), extending to any of the trustee's powers (20 Pa.C.S. §7780.15). The trustee's notices name each trust director (20 Pa.C.S. §7780.3).
- Directed trustee
- A trustee that takes reasonable action to comply with a trust director's exercise of a power of direction and is not liable for doing so, unless compliance would be the trustee's willful misconduct (20 Pa.C.S. §7780.20); unless the terms say otherwise it has no duty to monitor the director (20 Pa.C.S. §7780.22).
- Trust protector
- A trust director whose powers, granted expressly by the trust's terms, include modifying the terms — for example, changing what is distributable or terminating the trust (20 Pa.C.S. §7780.17).
- Nonjudicial settlement agreement
- A binding agreement among the beneficiaries, trustees and others with an interest in a trust matter — its interpretation, approval of a report or account, a trustee's resignation or appointment and others — valid only to the extent it is consistent with a material purpose of the trust and contains terms a court could properly approve (20 Pa.C.S. §7710.1).
- Nonjudicial account settlement
- A trustee's settlement of its account without the court, on the trust's termination, its own departure or for an interim period, by sending a notice with the statements the statute requires; a recipient may object in writing within 60 days after the notice was sent (20 Pa.C.S. §7785.1).
- Contest period
- A petition contesting the validity of a revocable trust must be filed no later than one year after the trustee gave the notice after the settlor's death; on petition the court may shorten the period to six months after that notice. The grounds are those for contesting a will (20 Pa.C.S. §7754).
- Limitation period (claims against a trustee)
- Where a trustee sent written financial reports at least annually, each with a conspicuous statement of the rule, a beneficiary who does not object in writing to a disclosed transaction within 30 months after the report is barred from challenging it; any claim is otherwise barred five years after the first of the trustee's departure notice, the end of the beneficiary's interest or the trust's termination, unless an account was filed (20 Pa.C.S. §7785).
- Trustee's advertisement
- After a settlor's death, the trustee of a revocable trust may advertise the trust's existence and the trustee's name and address, and must do so if the personal representative's first advertisement of letters does not occur within 90 days after the death — once a week for three successive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation and the court's legal periodical (20 Pa.C.S. §§7755, 3162).
- Advertisement of letters
- The personal representative's advertisement of the grant of letters, once a week for three successive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation and in the legal periodical the court designates, asking claimants to make their claims known (20 Pa.C.S. §3162). A representative who distributes at its own risk is protected against claims not known to it within one year after the first complete advertisement (20 Pa.C.S. §3532), and a trustee against claims not known within 13 months after it (20 Pa.C.S. §7755).
- Family exemption
- The right of a decedent's spouse — or, if none, the children, then the parents, who were members of the decedent's household — to retain or claim the decedent's property to the value of $3,500 (20 Pa.C.S. §3121). After the settlor's death a revocable trust's property can answer for it to the extent the statute states (20 Pa.C.S. §7745). Pennsylvania places no restriction on devising a home. מדריך: הבית לאחר פטירה בפנסילבניה
- Per capita with representation
- Pennsylvania's division of an intestate share among issue or collateral relatives: as many equal shares as there are persons in the nearest degree living and persons in that degree who died leaving issue, one share to each living person and one passing by representation to each deceased person's issue (20 Pa.C.S. §2104). מדריך: מחשבון per stirpes לנאמנים בפנסילבניה
- Small estate
- Where a decedent's property, apart from real estate and the payments the statute allows without letters, is worth no more than $50,000, the orphans' court division may direct its distribution on petition (20 Pa.C.S. §3102); an employer and a bank may make the limited payments to family the statute allows (20 Pa.C.S. §3101). מדריך: הליך הפרובייט בפנסילבניה, בהסבר
- Probate of a will
- A will may be offered for probate at any time, though one offered more than a year after the death is void against a good-faith buyer or lienholder of real estate in the circumstances the statute states (20 Pa.C.S. §3133); a register may cite a person holding a decedent's will to deposit it (20 Pa.C.S. §3137). מדריך: הליך הפרובייט בפנסילבניה, בהסבר
- Inventory (estate)
- The personal representative's verified inventory of the decedent's real and personal estate, filed with the register by the earlier of the account's filing or the inheritance-tax return's due date (20 Pa.C.S. §3301).
- Unitrust conversion
- Unless the instrument prohibits it, a trustee may convert a trust to a unitrust paying 4% of its net fair market value, by written notice to the eligible beneficiaries, where none objects in writing within 60 days (20 Pa.C.S. §8105).
- Exculpatory term
- A term relieving a trustee of liability; it is unenforceable to the extent it covers a breach committed in bad faith or with reckless indifference, or was inserted through the trustee's abuse of a fiduciary or confidential relationship (20 Pa.C.S. §7788).
- Governing law and situs
- A trust's terms are governed by the law they designate, except that Pennsylvania's mandatory rules govern where they differ; absent a designation, by the law of the settlor's domicile when the trust becomes irrevocable (20 Pa.C.S. §7707). A trustee may transfer the situs without the court on 60 days' notice and the qualified beneficiaries' written consents (20 Pa.C.S. §7708).
- Health care power of attorney
- A document in which an individual of sound mind who is 18, a high-school graduate, married or an emancipated minor names an agent for health care decisions; it is dated, signed and witnessed by two individuals (20 Pa.C.S. §5452). מדריך: ייפויי כוח והנחיות מקדימות בפנסילבניה
- Living will
- A document an individual of sound mind who is 18, a high-school graduate, married or an emancipated minor may make to govern life-sustaining treatment; it is dated, signed and witnessed by two individuals (20 Pa.C.S. §5442). מדריך: ייפויי כוח והנחיות מקדימות בפנסילבניה
מידע כללי על חוק פנסילבניה, לא ייעוץ משפטי.